It was a 2 bed, 1 bath brick bungalow. I replaced the ropes in all the windows and it did have an attic fan that was akin to an aircraft propeller I believe. It was FANtastic! I really liked that house, but time and a growing family meant that I had to sell it in 1987 and moved to a larger place. I still miss the place.

One of the things the houses had air flow. Yes, you may be pulling in pollen. But the house was able to breathe. Starting up the attic fan always seemed like a plane starting up. Once they got going they weren't bad though.

They were solid! Lathe and plaster walls. Both had roofs of slate, which would cost more to replace
than we paid for the houses!

Both had basements. The one in MO (St. Joseph) had asbestos wrapped ducts running from the old boiler. Cost a pretty penny to remove
them. The boiler in the NE (Lincoln) house still worked and the first time the heat came on after we'd moved in it scared the crap out of
me in the middle of the night when the pipes started banging!

No attic in either house--third floors that were livable space--but the NE house had attic space under the eaves. We used that space to run
the ducting for a small a/c system so we could remove the window a/c units there.

The house in NE had gorgeous woodwork and carved plaster ceiling details. It had oak linenfold doors on all the bedrooms. Unfortunately, the grandchildren of the original owners
had removed all the original light fixtures, stained glass windows, and some carved wooden sculptural details when they sold the house to the people who owned it before us.

Here's an old photo (which survived our fire here) of the exterior of the NE house. My husband loved that house, but to me, the house had bad vibes (turns out the people who sold it
to us got divorced); and the neighbors turned out to be real a$$holes who filed a lawsuit against us because we wanted to build a small freestanding office (in the space where an elaborate
playhouse had been) for my husband to see patients (he's a psychiatrist/psychoanalyst). The city had given us a permit, but the bigoted neighbors filed a lawsuit against us and when
they won, we sold the house and moved here to Chapel Hill. Turned out to be one of those 'make lemonade out of lemons' situations because we've all (our kids were still in school)
been better off than if we'd stayed in NE.

Two fireplaces or was there more? Between the slate roof , brick work, and the fireplaces I can't even imagine how much that would cost to build new.

one in the living room (rarely used); one in the basement--used a lot as a family room; one in what had
been an outside shade porch. We enclosed that space and my husband and I used it for a TV room (no TV in the living room)
when the kids were using the basement family room to play/watch movies or TV.

It's small, ugly and uninteresting. It was originally housing for officers when there was an air base nearby but the subdivision has been civilian for more than 40 years.

The only thing it has going for it is the cinder block construction - I have lived here 30 years and never once felt afraid of storms.

We added central heat and air about 20 years ago.


I LOVE the idea of old houses though. I watch all those Home and Garden channel shows about renovating old houses. But I mean much older than mine and built with some inspiration and love rather than just utility like mine. Wrap-around porches thrill me. Nooks and crannies and oddly shaped rooms excite me. A big old kitchen looking though yellow gingham curtains out into a lush back yard gives me an imaginary sense of nostalgia and comfort. (Imaginary because it's nostalgia for something I've only ever seen in pictures and on TV. But I can place my younger self there in my mind and it feels good).

I would love something like it if it was already done. I am artistic but not handy at all. I could make an old house look pretty for the few weeks before the elements knocked it down. I'd need modern convenience and insulation disguised in old-timey splendor.

But I can't afford to hire it done and I couldn't even begin to do it myself so I'll have to hunker down in utility futility until some long-lost relative dies and leaves me the keys to the kingdom.

Or the lottery.

old houses galore, and cheap!

I coulda bought one of several houses built in late 1800's,on acreage, for less than I paid for our house now.
Except did not fit our lifestyle and needs so we passed.

We live in a 1958 brick ranch house which has been added onto.
Thick walls, gorgeous moldings, hand plastered ceiling designs, and, happily, updated appliances.

I deliberately chose an older house, told the real estate woman to not even think of showing us anything post 1960.

In our town, there are lots of 1930's houses ( from when the Vanity Fair mill was moved down here from the north, so people had jobs)
and post WW2 houses.
plus, of course, some houses going back to 1830s.

My actual favorite thing is red brick. I see too much stucco here. I'm sick of stucco lol.

1 closet on the 1st floor and 1 on the 2nd.
Back in 1901 everybody had 1 coat and 1 pair of shoes
Always stunning to think how far we've come

The house I had the closets were small also.

One of the things funny with the house I bought was it had the original knob and tubing wiring. There were 2 porcelain tubes at the front of the house. The hot and neutral came in from there. (Evidently only 110 volts coming to the house) The wires were run toward the center of the attic all the way to the back porch. The hot wire came out down the wall and to double fuse panel. One of those that were completely open no box or cover. It had 2 of the screw in fuses. This was mounted about 3 feet directly above a porcelain sink. All the wires were actually in decent shape. Since they were run about a foot apart there was no way you could get a short between them. All the connections were done by wrapping the wires together, had been soldered, and taped. There was only one receptacle per room, the light switch, and light. Actually fairly safe as far as causing a fire. The only place you could have a problem with that is where they were in the boxes.

As far as I can tell from the abstract it was the first house in the area - most of the others appear to have been built after 1910. It has a sort of basement which I think might have originally been the cistern; there's just enough room for the furnace, water heater, utility sink and a shelf. Underneath the other half of the house there's just a crawl space. The house is quite small but it's really interesting because the two front rooms are at 45-degree angles to the front of the house. It's hard to describe, you have to see it. I've freaked out an architect, several inspectors and a contractor with the floor plan.

When I bought the place in 1990 the kitchen was awful - very small, almost no counter space. It was added to the house in the 30's (based on newspapers found in the walls during a renovation), having formerly been just a porch. The only bathroom was on the first floor. I have expanded and completely modernized the kitchen, turned the old bathroom into a powder room, and added a full bath on the second floor, which meant I had to sacrifice a bedroom, but the house is a lot more livable now. I also tore off a sagging front porch that was added in the '20s and rebuilt a more "period" open front porch.

Some of the things I really like about it, besides the weird floor plan, are that all the doors are solid oak, and the floors are beautiful, narrow oak boards with a border around the edge. There are stained glass panes above the living room windows and a built-in etagere in the dining room. It doesn't have enough electrical outlets or storage space - the curses of old houses - but someday I'll fix that, at least the outlets. I really love the place despite the upkeep required of any old house. It has a lot of character.

It has 8 working fireplaces and a basement with a brick floor. No attic fan but there's a hatch in the roof. It still has the original windows and pocket shutters. The floors are the real gem though. The widest board in the kitchen is 21".

I love this house.

That sounds like a real historic gem.

It's featured in a few books for the windows and the roof style. It was also built by a a Lt. Col. in the revolutionary war. I even have some of his clothes, with his name on the inside.

Sometimes I can't believe I get to live here. And it we are not well off by any means.

And you wouldn't believe some of the things we've found here. Letters, clothes, photos etc. Even an original copy of the state of the union from 1848!

When I rented a 1912 house in Portland I was told it was built for someone who was the first woman Oregon Supreme Court Justice.

In a latticed space under one corner of the house I found an old wheelbarrow that carried only an old copy of The Oregonian with a banner headline about the sinking of the Yorktown in WWII. I left it there and notified the owner.

That house still had a dumbwaiter in the kitchen, as deliveries were made to the rear basement door below.

And I thought that house was old, lol. Your house sounds fantastic!

We are only the second owners. The family who owned it previously owned 90 acres of farmland around the house, and farming was their livelihood. We bought it from the youngest of the five sons. He farmed until he was sixty-five, then moved to town. He loved his home, and I think he missed it. But he and his wife were unable to have children, so they could not carry on the family tradition of farming. They sold the house and acreage to us, with about three acres. They sold the farmland to another close neighbor.

About 1965, he did some extensive remodeling and upgrading. The house had new insulation, siding and bathrooms. More closets and
storage space was added. We did our own remodeling over the last five years.

We have done everything we can to keep the original character of this wonderful farmhouse. It sits on a high hill, so we have natural drainage and cooling. We do have an attic fan and a ceiling fan in the kitchen.

We have lived here for thirty-eight years. The place is huge, and it is getting harder for us to care for everything. If we do sell, I hope we can find someone who understands and appreciates the local history and the character of this property.